As first reported by TVLine, Bates will play the best friend of Jessica Lange's new character, who eventually becomes her enemy.

Lange has appeared in both seasons of Ryan Murphy's horror series and won an Emmy, a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild award for her work in Season 1. Also returning for Season 3 are Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Taissa Farmiga and Frances Conroy, Post South reported.

Bates, an Oscar winner for the thriller "Misery," based on a Steven King horror story, most recently starred on the NBC legal drama "Harry's Law," and a recurring role on "The Office."

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"American Horror Story," for those who haven't seen it, is a gruesome series in which each season is a completely different story from the one that preceded it. Season 1 was set in modern times at a Los Angeles home haunted by numerous blood-thirsty ghosts. Season 2 was set during the 1960s in an insane asylum with a mad doctor (played by James Cromwell) who experimented on patients.

Lange played a nosy neighbor and former owner of the home in Season 1, and played a nun working at the asylum in season 2.